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Dylan Larkin’s slick pass sets up great goal by Henrik Zetterberg

He may not be the leading rookie scorer, but Dylan Larkin is making a great case for the Calder Trophy. The 19-year-old scored the game-winning goal against Buffalo, but it was his brilliant pass to Henrik Zetterberg that stood out Friday night.

Dylan Larkin may not be the leading rookie scorer, but the Red Wings freshman is making more than a fair case to take home rookie of the year honors.

Friday night against the Buffalo Sabres, Larkin was all over the ice, as he has been all season for Detroit. The Red Wings dominated the contest through two periods, but the game remained scoreless until Larkin notched the game’s opening goal eight minutes into the third frame after collecting a loose puck to the left of Buffalo Sabres netminder Robin Lehner. The goal was an important one -- the game-winner -- but Larkin’s best piece of work came on the Red Wings’ insurance goal.

Five minutes after he opened the scoring, Larkin made a spectacular play to find a seam in the Sabres defense and thread a perfect pass onto the tape of Henrik Zetterberg, which the Red Wings captain made no mistake on:

Larkin’s pass is the type of play you’d expect from a savvy veteran player, not a 19-year-old in his first full season in the league. But Larkin has impressed all season long. Scoring aside, Larkin has been good in the two-way game and has been one of the most effective Red Wings forwards by a good margin.

While he does start a healthy percentage of his shifts in the offensive zone — 40.1 percent, per Puckalytics — Larkin’s 70.8 goals for percentage is remarkable. That means for every 10 goals scored at even strength while Larkin is on the ice, seven have been for the Red Wings. Of players that have played 500 minutes at 5-on-5, only Joe Thornton and Tyler Toffoli have a better goals for percentage. Both are tied at 72.3 percent.

Through 46 games, Larkin has the most goals of any Red Wing with 15, but he shares the scoring lead with Zetterberg at 32 points. To top it off, Larkin has five game-winning goals, and all but two of his points have come at even strength.

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Philip Larsen got knocked unconscious, the Canucks retailiated without knowing what happened, and they could have hurt their teammate even worse in the process.

The incident was horrific. We can all agree on that.

Tuesday night in New Jersey, Vancouver Canucks blueliner Philip Larsen skated behind his net to retrieve a puck. He had no idea Devils left winger Taylor Hall was pursuing the same puck. They collided heavily. Larsen bashed his head on the ice and was knocked out cold.

It was a scary scene, undoubtedly, one that understandably evoked a ton of emotion from Larsen's teammates. It was hardly a surprise to see a flurry of Vancouver players swarm Hall and make him fight.

It was a shame, however, for multiple reasons. First off, the hit wasn't dirty. It wasn't even a deliberate bodycheck. Hall leaned back on his skates to slow his momentum and held out his arms as if protecting himself from imminent impact. It was more of a crash than a bonecrushing hit. We can debate whether Larsen's head was the principal point of contact – I don't believe it was at all – but it's irrelevant when assessing Hall's guilt. There was no intent there. He won't be disciplined by the NHL for an accident.

And yet, thanks to the sport's culture of immediate and forceful vengeance, Hall had to fight anyway. In the spur of the moment, in the heat of elite competition, players are simply too jacked up to take a breath and assess the situation. They see a comrade fall and, in mere milliseconds, seek and destroy whoever caused the harm.

“You always have a problem with a hit when one of your guys gets hit hard," Canucks coach Willie Desjardins told the Vancouver Province's Jason Botchford after the the game. "It doesn’t matter if it’s a clean hit. You have a problem when a guy gets hit that hard. I think all coaches would.”

The ironic thing about this tough-guy mentality is that it could end up pushing one of the toughest things about hockey out of the game: good, clean hits. If the swarm mentality goes on much longer, the only guys willing to lay opponents out with big hits will be those ready and willing to drop the gloves right afterward. Sooner or later players might decide it's not worth sitting five minutes and/or risking injury just to put a lick on a guy. And, in Hall's case, he wasn't even trying to drill Larsen.

Will we ever stop seeing players attacked after clean hits? I doubt it. The revenge assault is a crime of passion, a snap decision. But maybe, just maybe, the Canucks and players all over the world can learn a bit from what happened right after Larsen got hit. Watch:

The first instinct, sadly, is not to help Larsen, but to destroy Hall. Center Michael Chaput immediately starts a fight. That causes a pileup of players from both teams – all around the unconscious Larsen. It's downright disturbing to see him getting kicked in the head by his own teammates’ skates. Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom tries to box out Larsen and keep him safe. Markus Granlund tries as well but has to step over and onto Larsen in the process. It’s a miracle Larsen wasn’t cut. None of that would've happened had Chaput thought of Larsen first.

The ugly scene is a reminder that, right after a teammate takes a massive hit, the first priority should be to protect him. The best way to do that isn't to attack his attacker. It's to attend to the teammate first. There's plenty of time to review what happened and take down the perpetrator's number for later in the game. That's what jumbo-tron replays are for. And, in cases like Hall's, the violence would be averted altogether if players watched the replay and realized it was an accident.

Sadly, the idea is a pipe dream, and I don’t expect players to learn from Larsen's fate anytime soon. But we can always hope.

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At least two teams are reportedly interested in acquiring the Sedins for their full cap hit and Canucks veterans could draw interest at the trade deadline. The Kings are looking to clear cap space by moving out Teddy Purcell.

The ongoing struggles of the Vancouver Canucks this season generated some speculation over possible roster moves.

By late-November, The Province's Jason Botchford suggested the Canucks could get an early start on deciding which players to move by the March 1 trade deadline. He felt veterans such as Ryan Miller, Alex Edler, Alexandre Burrows and perhaps even Daniel and Henrik Sedin could be on the move.

Botchford said he knows of two teams that would be willing to acquire the Sedins for their full combined salary-cap hit of $14 million. If the Canucks were to pick up part of that cap hit (which runs through 2017-18), he thinks more clubs would be interested.

The sticking point, of course, is the Sedins' willingness to be traded. So far, they've given no indication that they want out of Vancouver. As Botchford points out, such a move would likely have to take place in the off-season.

Even if the Canucks put the Sedins on the block, they're unlikely to fetch a significant return. While they're still putting up solid numbers (17 points in 26 games), the 36-year-old twins are well past their prime. Teams aren't going to give up a lot for a couple of fading stars. Picks and prospects, sure, but nothing that would immediately reverse the Canucks' fortunes.

As for Miller, he and Canucks management could be willing to work out a contract extension. Botchford's collegue Ben Kuzma doubts the Canucks place the 36-year-old goalie on the block by the trade deadline.

Kuzma notes Miller's stats aren't great this season. However, he feels he'll still be a good fit with Jacob Markstrom, buying some time until promising goalie prospect Thatcher Demko is ready to move up. He wonders if Miller might be agreeable to a two- or three-year deal worth between $4-$4.5 million per season. That's a significant pay cut from Miller's current $6-million annual salary.

Considering Miller's no longer an elite goaltender, he probably won't get much better than that on the open market. He could test next summer's free-agent market, but will likely find few decent offers. He could prefer to avoid uncertainty over his future by staying in Vancouver for a reasonable contract.

KINGS TRYING TO FREE SPACE WITH PURCELL MOVE

Los Angeles Kings left wing Teddy Purcell cleared waivers over the weekend. Signed as a free agent last summer to a one-year, $1.6-million contract, the 31-year-old managed only two points in 12 games this season. Illness and a lower-body injury sidelined him in October, and he was a healthy scratch in the Kings' last four games.

With 21 of 30 NHL teams carrying $2 million or less in cap space, moving Purcell's cap hit is difficult right now. The Kings obviously want to shed his salary without taking any back in a deal. They could be waiting until later in the season to find the right deal.

Rumor Roundup appears regularly only on thehockeynews.com. Lyle Richardson has been an NHL commentator since 1998 on his website, spectorshockey.net, and is a contributing writer for Eishockey News and The Guardian (P.E.I.).For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.

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Connor McDavid didn’t mince his words when asked post-game about Brandon Manning. He called the Flyers defenseman “classless” and said Manning admitted to injuring him on purpose.

Connor McDavid has had no shortage of head-to-head battles with young stars in the game. There has been outings against Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews and more than handful per year against the Flames duo of Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan.

But of all the players Connor McDavid could have had an on-ice feud with, it seems Brandon Manning is the first real rival for the Oilers phenom.

One might recall that it was during the early part of the 2015-16 campaign that Manning, a Philadelphia Flyers blueliner, got tangled up with McDavid as he looked to break in on goal, resulting in McDavid making hard contact with the boards behind the net. The impact with the boards saw McDavid break his collarbone and led to a 37-game absence for the then-rookie.

It was believed to be an unintentional act, something that simply happened as part of the game, and McDavid had even absolved Manning of any blame. That was until last night, more than 13 months after the Nov. 3, 2015 injury to McDavid..

During the Oilers’ hard-fought 6-5 defeat at the hands of the Flyers, McDavid was seen verbally jousting with Manning on a couple of occasions. The most obvious case came after a power play goal by McDavid, where he was seen skating towards Manning and shouting something in his direction.

It didn’t end there, though. Post-game, the Oilers captain went in on Manning, calling the hit that led to the broken collarbone an intentional act.

"I did all I could defending him last year in the media," McDavid said. "Everyone wanted to make a big deal saying he did it on purpose, and he wanted to say some comments today about what went on last year. I thought it was one of the [most] classless things I've ever seen on the ice. He said some things and our guys responded accordingly. I guess we can put the whole 'if he did it on purpose' thing to rest because what he said out there kind of confirmed that. Shows what kind of guy he is when he doesn’t step up and fight some of our guys.”

Shortly after McDavid commented on the incident, Manning fired back saying that he would “never intentionally hurt someone,” and added that’s not the way he plays.

"Anybody who knows me, I play a hard game,” Manning said, according to NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman. “That's the reason I'm here, that's the way I'm in the NHL. I'm not here to score goals like some of those guys. I think I play an honest game, and anyone who knows me knows I play hard and stuff happens out there."

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Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin has turned into quite the find, and on Wednesday he flashed some uncanny offensive awareness and skill with a creative skate pass to set up a power play goal.

It’s taken all of one full season for Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin to go from NCAA standout to top-pairing rearguard in the NHL, but much of that has to do with his ability in his own end.

Don’t take that to mean Slavin can’t make something out of seemingly nothing on offense, though.

During Wednesday’s meeting between the Hurricanes and Ducks, Slavin was manning the point on a power play late in the first frame. As the puck was worked back to Justin Faulk, Slavin retreated back to give his partner a passing option, and when the puck came across the line, it was headed to Slavin’s backhand side, meaning he would have had to slow it and settle it in order to make a play. Instead, he used his feet.

Slavin, in a brilliant display of skill, opened up his stance, let the puck glance off of his right skate and deflected the puck perfectly into Teuvo Teravainen’s wheelhouse. Watch him finish the clever play off with a rocket of a one-timer:

That’s a thing of beauty from start to finish.

As mentioned, Slavin isn’t exactly known for his ability to produce with the puck on his stick, but he is well on his way to surpassing his rookie season output. He notched two goals and 20 points in 63 games during the 2015-16 campaign, and is on pace for three goals and 25 points this year, already with one marker and eight points to his name.

What Slavin brings to the Hurricanes definitely goes beyond his offense, though. In Wednesday’s game, a tough 6-5 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks, Slavin skated more than 28 minutes. It was his season high, but just one of seven games in which he has seen more than 25 minutes of ice time. The only player averaging more ice than Slavin is Justin Faulk, and that’s by a mere two seconds per game.